Climate Change Awareness and Coping Strategies Among Poultry Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The significant effect of high environmental temperatures and humidity, can lead to panting, lethargy, and potentially death of fowls. Farmers’ awareness of climate change is a prerequisite to combating heat-stress impacts on poultry productions in most of Africa's countries. This study assessed climate change awareness and coping strategies among poultry farmers in the Akoko region of Ondo State, Nigeria. The study has adopted purposive random sampling selection of forty (40) active poultry farms in each of the local government area of the study region. Each poultry farm managers were administered with a copy of questionnaire that elicited information on farming activities as it relates to climate change impact. Simple percentages and Likert scales perception model were used for rating and ranking the opinions of the respondents. Findings revealed that: the daily earning income of most farmers (57.5) is 46 US dollars, which indicates poultry farming as major source of their income. It was equally observed that farmers are into battery housing systems; also, major information on climate change are usually available to farmers through personal observation of cold, warm, and hot weather. Low production and death of fowls have been attributed to heat stress, especially, during the dry season. As a measure for copping strategy, farmers adopted indigenous-weather related cooling devices during the excessive heat. In order to strengthen these strategies, this study recommends promotion of climate service education by extension officers and involvement in more climate risk reduction activities to enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity

Keywords

• Poultry
• Climate Change
• Coping Strategy
• Farmer

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